PRINCIPLES FOR CHURCHES AND LOCAL CHRISTIAN AGENCIES COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY WORK AND SERVICE PROVISION IN THE UK

Motivated by our Christian faith we commit ourselves to serve others by assuring the following standards in all our community work.

Service to the Community

• To serve and to respect all people regardless of their gender, marital status, race, ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation or physical and mental capability.
• To acknowledge the freedom of people of all faiths or none both to hold and to express their beliefs and convictions respectfully and freely, within the limits of the UK law.

Never to impose our Christian faith or belief on others.

• To develop partnerships with other churches, voluntary groups, statutory agencies and local government wherever appropriate in order to create an effective, integrated service for our clients avoiding unnecessary duplication of resources.
• To provide and to publicise regular consultation and reporting forums to client groups and the wider community regarding the effective development and delivery of our work and our responsiveness to their actual needs.

Clients, Staff and Volunteers

• To create an environment where clients, volunteers and employees are encouraged and enabled to realise their potential.
• To assist our clients, volunteers and employees to take responsibility for their own learning and development, both through formal and informal training opportunities and ongoing assessment.
• To develop an organisational culture in which individuals learn from any mistakes made and where excellence and innovation are encouraged and rewarded.
• To promote the value of a balanced, holistic lifestyle as part of each individual's overall personal development.
• To abide by the requirements of employment law in the UK and to implement best employment practices and procedures designed to maintain our distinctive ethos and values.

Management and Outcomes

• To implement a management structure which fosters and encourages participation by staff at all levels in order to facilitate the fulfilment of the project's goals and visions.
• To set and to review measurable and timed outcomes annually, and regularly to evaluate and monitor our management structure and output, recognising the need for ongoing organisational flexibility, development and good stewardship of resources.
• To do all we can to ensure that we are not over-dependent on any one source of funding.
• To implement best practice procedures in terms of Health and Safety and Child Protection in order to protect our staff, volunteers and clients.
• To handle our funding in a transparent and accountable way and to give relevant people from outside our organisation/project reasonable access to our accounts.